Ida Lupino aims her camera like a loaded gun in The Hitch-Hiker—a lean, sweating noir where friendship curdles into fear. Two buddies on a fishing trip pick up the wrong man: a dead-eyed killer with a twitchy finger and no exit plan. Based on a true story, this is the first American noir directed by a woman—and it burns with desert heat and moral rot. No femme fatales. No smoky jazz bars. Just a car, a gun, and three men who won’t all make it out. Bleak, brutal, and way ahead of its time.